A twice-weekly syndicated newspaper column on California public affairs.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ANTI-SEMITISM IS WHITEWASHED

CALIFORNIA
FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013, OR THEREAFTER

BY THOMAS D. ELIAS

“WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ANTI-SEMITISM IS
WHITEWASHED”

Less than two years ago, Palestinian
students and sympathizers on the University of California’s flagship Berkeley
campus dressed up in combat fatigues, “armed” themselves with genuine-looking
mock firearms and set up “checkpoints” where they demanded that students
attempting to pass tell them if they were Jewish.

There
was no immediate outcry on campus, nor any response from administrators or
campus police, as there surely would have been if students set up similar
“checkpoints” to determine whether students with tan complexions are really
African-Americans or whether students conversing in Spanish are undocumented
immigrants.

When Jewish groups later sought a
court order against similar demonstrations in the future, U.S. District Judge
Richard Seeborg of San Francisco said any attempt to ban them would “raise
serious First Amendment issues.”

So, he implied, campuses can ban “hate
speech” like the N-word and anti-gay smears, but outright physical intimidation
of Jewish students and impinging on their walking space are OK.

In August of this year, both the U.S.
Department of Education and the Berkeley administration exonerated the
demonstrators of anti-Semitism charges, and found that two other incidents to
which Jewish students objected on the UC campuses at Irvine and Santa Cruz also
were just fine.

At the time, the Amcha (Hebrew for
“your people”) Initiative against campus anti-Semitism and other Jewish groups
warned these decisions might lead to an escalation. The whitewashings may
not have condoned campus anti-Semitism, but they certainly promised to enable
it.

This appeared to come true in November
at San Francisco State University, where a student group called the General
Union of Palestinian Students set up tables in Malcolm X Plaza featuring
messages like this: “My heroes have always killed colonizers.”

Later, Amcha uncovered a since-removed
picture on the Tumblr website allegedly posted by the president of the
Palestinian student group, showing him brandishing a knife, with the caption
saying “I seriously can not get over how much I love this blade. It is the
sharpest thing I own and cuts through everything like butter and just holding
it makes me want to stab an Israeli soldier…”

Palestinian student groups say they
differentiate between Israelis and Jews, but most Jews are skeptical of that
claim. Key Palestinian groups like Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and won
the last major Palestinian election, make no such distinction. Says that
group’s covenant, “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very
serious.” And the mufti of the Palestinian Authority has issued a fatwa
forbidding sale of land to Jews (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_Palestinian_territories).
So it's no wonder many Jewish students feel targeted when Palestinians refer to
killing “colonizers” or knifing Israelis.

University officials who may believe
Jews have little reason to feel this way and that such references are
constitutionally protected free speech might want to look at some once-popular
Nazi German anthems that also referred to knifing Jews.

“Sharpen the long knives on the
pavement, let the knives slip into the Jew’s body,” goes the lead verse of
“Blood Must Flow,” theme song of the S.A. (full name in German: Sturmabteilung,
or Assault Division), Adolf Hitler’s notorious “Brownshirts.” “When Jewish
blood spurts off the knife, things will be twice as good,” says the “Fighting
Song of the S.A.,” another Brownshirt anthem.

To his credit, when San Francisco
State’s president, Les Wong, heard of the Palestinian group’s words, he issued
a statement saying “The university is a place where dialogue, debate and the
marketplace of ideas are cherished. We must also maintain a safe environment.
Engaging in expressions that threaten and intimidate are counter to these
goals…”

If Berkeley officials had reacted
similarly to the Palestinian mock checkpoints, the San Francisco State
incidents might never have occurred. But unless Wong follows through,
preventing a repeat, and officials of other campuses react as strongly, there
will be more intimidating demonstrations and Web postings.

And soon they may not merely target
Jewish students. Example: An investigation is now underway of an alleged
anti-black hate crime at San Jose State. For Jews have long been like a canary
in a coal mine: They are often the first targets in waves of discrimination and
hate, but those waves almost always wind up washing over plenty of others.

-30-

Email Thomas Elias at
tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising
Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It," is now
available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Me

Thomas Elias writes the syndicated California Focus column, appearing twice weekly in 88 newspapers around California, with circulation over 2.2 million.
He has won numerous awards from organizations like the National Headliners Club, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the Los Angeles Press Club, and the California Taxpayers Association. He has been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize in distinguished commentary.
Elias is the author of two books, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government's Campaign to Squelch It" (now in its third edition; also published in Japanese and recently optioned for a television movie) and "The Simpson Trial in Black and White," co-authored with the late Dennis Schatzman.